LOVEQTRA Girls’ Home and School

Girls at LOVEQTRA

In late February New Day approved a second grant to LOVEQTRA for the installation of a heating system in the girls’ home and school as well as the purchase of an industrial washer/dryer that would allow all the residents to regularly wash their clothes and bed clothes.  We secured co-funding from the HK-based Silvercrest Foundation and transferred the money to Qinghai.  Unfortunately the funds arrived on the 2^nd of March a day after Beijing had implemented severe restrictions on the foreign funding of local NGO’s.  LOVEQTRA was not able to withdraw the funds from their account and they had to be repatriated to New Day in Hong Kong.  We are very sad about this and remain committed to LOVEQTRA.  We are currently looking for a solution to getting the funds to them but will have to wait until the situation calms down.  For details on this project you can have a look at the funding proposal we prepared for Silvercrest Foundation here;

LOVEQTRA proposal for Silvercrest Foundation

Final report from Give2Asia on the one Stop Repair Shops, Nepal.

Have a look at the following report from Give2Asia about the progress made in the One Stop Repair Shops funded partly by New Day: NP-G2A-OneStopShops final report3-2009

Final report from LOVEQTRA on New Day funding for the Sengchemdrukmo Girls Home in Qinghai province, China

Ingrid Sun received the final report from LOVEQTRA on their use of the HK$98,000 in funding they received from New Day in June 2008.  They used the money to equip a new kitchen to feed the girls, construct a dining room table and benches where the girls eat their meals and complete the construction of the 3rd storey of the Home.  This 3rd storey space will house computers for the girls.

Have a look at the report for more details.  It is full of photographs of the Home and the girls.  final-report-for-new-day-sgh-nov-20081

Thanks, Ingrid, for all your hard work on this project!

New Day visit the Somaly Mam Foundation’s Voices for Change team in Phnom Penh

Somaly Mam at a press conference in Phnom Penh

In December 2008 New Day members Kim Cheung and Liza Green visited the Voices for Change office in Phnom Penh.  We met with the Voices for Change team leader Sina Vann, Somaly Mam and the VFC support staff.  We also met a young girl, Pros Long, who had escaped from severe abuse at a city brothel and was being cared for by Sina.  Her story touched our hearts.

Sina Vann, VFC team leader.

Pros Long - a victim under the care of Sina at Voices for Change

We were delighted to see all of the office equipment that New Day bought for the VFC team being put to use.  Although this is a new venture the VFC team has the full support of the Somaly Mam Foundation and they are busy rolling out their educational activities, advocacy and outreach work.

Posting board in the VFC office

After the meeting at their office we were taken to a hair salon that is run by a well-known stylist A. Neanda and staffed with Girls who have been rehabilitated in AFESIP shelters and trained in hair-dressing skills.  In all our encounters we were struck by the supportive and close atmosphere that the girls are being cared for in.  We were very encouraged to see the effect our grant is having on their day-to-day activities and long-term planning.  thank you again to Linklaters for their generous support of this project.  you can download the presentation to members on Voices for Change here voices-for-change-members-kim-pre

For more details you can also download our site visit report : new-day-report-voices-for-change-_smf_-v21

A Visit to the One Stop Shops in Nepal

Check out the following article on a visit to the One Stop Shops Project in Nepal by one of our members. There are lots of photos so please be patient with the download !

nepal-shop-visit-oct08

FUNDED! Somaly Mam Foundation – Voices for Change

Project : Somaly Mam Foundation – Voices for Change

Location : Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Project Leader : Liza Green

Contact: cgreen@netvigator.com

Funding status : HK$79,420 (September 2008)

Corporate Funding Partner : Linklaters

The Somaly Mam foundation Southeast Asia is a regional branch of the Somaly Mam Foundation (SMF), a non-profit public charity working to end sexual slavery in the world. With the vision and leadership of world renowned Cambodian activist, Somaly Mam, the foundation strives to get to the root of human trafficking. It aims to raise awareness among the local and global communities of the sex trafficking trade through multilevel marketing and education campaign consisting of online interaction, celebrity voices, high profile events, exposure, university clubs and dissemination of educational information. Furthermore, Somaly Mam foundation funds organisations which rescue, rehabilitate and reintegrate sex trafficking victims. Its primary beneficiary is AFESIP Cambodia.

SMF will use New Day funds primarily to facilitate the activities of the Victims Voice Unit (VVU). The VVU consists of four ex-victim representatives and of SMF coordinating staff. Their is to build the capacity of victim’s voice representatives to act as reporters, focal persons and facilitators to collect trafficking and sexual exploitation related information for weekly articles for SMF websites and mass media. The VVU will work solely with victims and advocate on their behalf. They will collect victims’ stories from the field, document all the information and use it to raise awareness in government(s) and local and international communities and advocate to end sex trafficking. They will also use the material to educate at-risk populations and counsel existing victims.

Funding request:

2 Digital recorders
2 Cameras
1 Video Camera
2 laptops
1 Motorbike
1 Photocopier
1 Fax machine with phone
1 Scanner
1 TV
1 DVD Player
1 Microphone
1 Sound System
1 LCD
1 Screen Projector

Linklaters, through their Community Investment Committee has donated HK$60,000 to New Day to be used towards this project and the project was fully funded by the end of September 2008. Thank you Linklaters!

Liza Green and New Day member Kim Cheung will visit Phnom Penh in November 2008 and provide the membership with photographs and a progress report.

 

 

 

 

FUNDED! Violence Against Women One Stop Repair Shops

Project : Violence Against Women One Stop Repair Shops

Location : Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Project Leader : Liza Green

Contact: cgreen@netvigator.com

Funding status : HK$78,000 (September 2008)

Corporate Funding Partner : Linklaters

An estimated 12,000 women and girls are trafficked from Nepal each year. They are tricked, coerced, abducted, sold, and in many cases forced to live and work under slavery-like conditions as prostitutes, domestic workers, sweatshop laborers, or wives.

This project will support a group of young women who have recently established two “One-Stop Repair Shops” (2 electrical and 2 motorbike repair shops) where they can provide a range of repair and maintenance services to the public. The women working in these shops have successfully completed a vocational training program previously provided to them under the Gainful Employment Program, a partnership between The Asia Foundation, Underprivileged Children’s Educational Programs (UCEP), and the Nepal Rugmark Foundation.

These shops will help the women to earn sustainable incomes while also demonstrating that women are also capable of performing in traditionally male occupations. UCEP will help to open and advertise the repair shops – especially to women customers, procure and purchase the equipment, oversee the shops’ management, and work with the Asia Foundation to help monitor the operations for long-term sustainability.

Project Budget (USD):

• Equipment for existing shops = $6,543
• Equipment for one new shop = $3,099

New Day member Debra Tan will visit the shops and UCEP in Kathmandu in October and provide all at new Day with photographs and a progress report.

Update: Photos

Girls Home under construction ….

Girls sitting on their new benches …

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FUNDED! LOVEQTRA Sengchemdrukmo Girl’s Home

Project : LOVEQTRA Sengchemdrukmo Girl’s Home

Location : Qinghai Province, China

Project Leader : Ingrid Sun

Contact: ingridsun@yahoo.com

Funding status : Items 1 and 3 at a total cost of HK$98,000 in June 2008

LOVEQTRA’s Sengchemdrukmo Girl’s Home (SGH) was set up in 2004 and began formal operation in 2006. The aim is to provide a place where desperate Tibetan girls can find a hope and future beyond the crippling tradition of gender bias within Tibetan society. LOVEQTRA is a legitimate NPO registered with the Qinghai Civil Affairs Department. LOVEQTRA has rescued 40 girls to date from slavery, poverty and orphan-hood and gives them a place where they can live, be cared for, clothed, fed, educated and receive medical care. It has 5 full time staff, 2 of which stay at the home full time and 3 teachers who come in during the day.

LOVEQTRA applied for funding from New Day for the following facilities at SGH:

1. CNY 60,000 to complete 60m2 of the 3rd storey of the new school building.
2. CNY 23,000 to outfitting one computer room on the 3rd storey with 5 computers.
3. CNY 27,000 to equip and furnish the kitchen.